Беды (бедствия)

If evil people live prosperously here in this world, and good people suffer evil and troubles, do not be embarrassed by this, but look at the end of both. Prosperity and misfortune in the end are manifested and noted. The evil ones live happily here, but the evil ones die and move to great disaster - eternal destruction. The good and pious live in misfortune and suffer evil, but they die blissfully and are transported to eternal bliss. Wonderful change! Some go from small and imaginary prosperity to great and true disaster, others from small sorrow to great joy. Look at the whole 36th Psalm and Psalms 72 and from 22 to 27 about this. It is impossible for a person living in this world to free himself from all troubles. It happens that he is freed from one trouble, and another one meets him. Just as sailors always expect bad weather and storms, so one who lives in this world must always expect trouble and misfortune. One misfortune has passed, then unexpectedly another comes - the world cannot exist without it. A person is born to troubles and, as if anticipating them, cries, for every baby is born crying. Lives and is brought up in troubles. The longer he lives, the more his troubles multiply. He dies with fear, and if he does not die in the Lord, even greater troubles await him. A man is poor on the outside, but he is also poor on the inside. He is depressed and tormented by various infirmities and illnesses. The flesh with passions and lusts rises up against him and wants to possess him and put him to eternal death. Man constantly feels this rebellion and torment, and the more he resists the flesh, the more it rebels against him. And this inner misfortune and evil, this poison with which a person is infected, does not kill him temporarily, but eternally. From the outside, the devil constantly lays snares for him and tries to ensnare him into destruction. Various temptations of the world, like thorns, torment him and want to kill his soul. Every person lives in such a disaster. Not only church history, but also sacred history testifies to how many were moved to true repentance by physical and temporary troubles. We see this even now. This is why the humane God sends troubles to us - so that we may move to true repentance and live in the fear of God. Both troubles and misfortunes testify to the goodness and love of God towards us. Both in troubles and in misfortunes we must thank the humane God, for everything comes from Him and for the sake of our good end. He cares for us. The prodigal son, when he squandered his father’s property and came to such poverty and poverty that he began to die of hunger, then he came to his senses and said: “How many of my father’s hired servants have an abundance of bread, and I am dying of hunger; I will get up and go to my father and say to him: Father! I have sinned against heaven and before you (Luke 15:17–18). Likewise, misfortune prompts a sinner to return to Heavenly Father and true repentance. Every misfortune comes most of all from the temptation itself. Those who are sick experience illness most of all. How severely toothache torments a person, only he knows who suffers from it. Think the same about other troubles, physical and temporary. Likewise, spiritual distress, hidden within the heart, is recognized most of all in temptation. And the more a person is in temptation, the better he recognizes his poverty and spiritual wretchedness. Temptation reveals everything that lies inside the heart, just as an emetic reveals what is contained in the stomach. And the more a person recognizes his spiritual distress and damnation, the more he humbles himself. The knowledge of misfortune humbles a person. The more one humbles oneself, the more one receives grace from God. God gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5:5). Having known our heart, we humble ourselves and fall before God, admit ourselves guilty, and seek mercy from Him, and ask and pray with the prophet: create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in my womb (Ps. 50:12)! And for this, among other reasons, God sends attacks on us, that is, so that we can recognize ourselves: poverty, misery and our spiritual wretchedness, and so humble ourselves. The disaster found is like a medicine called an emetic. Just as, having taken an emetic, a person vomits harmful juices out of himself and thus sees and knows what he is sick with, so when he finds a disaster, evil thoughts come out, like harmful juices, hiding in the heart and damaging the soul, and this is how a person learns what he is spiritually sick with. And he is convinced to resort with humility and petition to Christ, the Physician of human souls. Sin brings about temporary punishments, such as: bloody wars, pestilences, illnesses, sorrows, famines, earthquakes, fires, etc. If there were no sin, none of this would have happened. Sin is the cause of all evils and disasters. How poor and damned Christians would be, more than all people, in constant troubles, sorrows, and exploits, if they were always ordered to live in this world! And if in this life only we hope in Christ, says St. Paul, then we are the most miserable of all people (1 Cor. 15:19). For a Christian to always live in this world is nothing other than to be in troubles and sorrows, for a true Christian cannot be without adversity. There is no such great calamity in this world that does not have some consolation and relief. Poverty is sad, but it receives consolation from the name of Christ and the mercy of good people. A severe illness is painful, but it is cooled by treatment or something else. It is considered a great disaster and misfortune not only to lose one’s honor, property, wife, and children, but also to be thrown into prison. However, even there the needy is not without consolation: he enjoys light and air, common to all, although not equally with the free; cools himself with food and drink; sadness, falling asleep, forgets; he is consoled by visiting kind people; He feeds on the hope of liberation, perhaps, but also does not tolerate wounds and beatings. If he suffers unjustly, he rejoices in the hope of heavenly reward. If it is fair, he humbles himself before God, admits sin, repents, and thus rejoices in the hope of God’s mercy, saying: It is good for me that He humbled me, so that I might learn Your statutes (Ps. 119:71). Besides, death will end all disasters. The Lord sees the iniquity of the judges and lawless authorities, and because of them the cry, like that of Sodom, comes to the Lord, and the groaning of His wretched people hears, and judges “the judge of all the earth.” From here we see terrible executions sent from the righteous judgment of God to states and cities; we see terrible wars and bloodshed, we see pestilences; We see charmers and sons of destruction, and troublemakers of the fatherland, who ascribe to themselves the names of high persons and plot rebellion and harm to the fatherland; We see terrible fires and famines and other executions. All this is God, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and as a righteous Judge who judges the whole earth, he sends out unrighteous judgments, bitterness and violence against poor people. They will ask: “Where do the troubles and misfortunes come from in the world?” Answer: God sends troubles and misfortunes to us, but even in this His amazing goodness is shown: 1. God, through His word, calls everyone to repentance, as we read and hear about in many places in Holy Scripture, but when people do not turn and do not repent, He sends misfortunes upon them, so that they will be moved to repentance and seek Him. You see the goodness of God here too. God, not wanting our destruction, sends misfortunes upon us: he punishes us here, but does not kill us, he corrects us so that we may be saved, but does not destroy us. God even threatens us with Gehenna in His Scripture so that we do not fall into Gehenna. You see what the purpose of the misfortunes sent to us is. This is what pious authorities do, who do not torture their subjects, but punish them so that they become good. For many are corrected and saved through adversity, as we read in books. 2. Those who are not corrected by adversity already perish in their malice. So Pharaoh was repeatedly punished, but did not reform, but became embittered and died. 3. The good and pious accept punishment in order to be confirmed in piety, for in prosperity a person, because he is weak, conveniently turns away from the good path. Therefore, they are punished in order to become better. For just as a tree, the more it is cleansed, the more fruit it bears, so the more a good Christian is punished, the more fruits of virtues he produces. The Lord speaks about this: the Father (the Father) purges every branch that bears fruit, so that it may bear more fruit (John 15:2). Thus, pious people learn beautiful virtues: humility, patience, meekness and love, and with them they follow their Lord and be like them. 4. Pious souls taste the sorrows of the world, so as not to forget their heavenly fatherland and so as not to regard this world as their fatherland, but they raise their thoughts there and strive, where there are no misfortunes, troubles, illnesses and sighing. Think about this and in adversity kiss, glorify and magnify the goodness of God. Sin causes all sorts of troubles in the world. If there were no sin, there would be no troubles. Troubles and misfortunes are added, but luxury and sins - the cause of troubles and misfortunes - multiply, and the Righteous God becomes more angry. What follows from this? Greater troubles must be expected: just like the weak, whose weakness is not healed, but is more irritated, greater illness must be expected; or like a fire that is not extinguished, but is fanned, will intensify. Before death, people become more and more enraged. The Lord says: if you do not repent, you will all perish in the same way (Luke 13:3). This word is terrible, for it is true: punish us, Lord, but in Thy righteousness, and not in anger, so as not to belittle us (Jer. 10:24).